CSPAM Book club for book matters and also reading!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > CSPAM Book club for book matters and also reading!

cda: Jan 2, 2010; by Hand Knit

Tenth of December by George Saunders. Why this book? Because it's short stories so even if you don't read the whole book, you can still talk about it. Also, the stories are really loving good. Best ones: Semplica Girl Diaries, Escape from Spiderhead, Puppy, The Tenth of December. But they're all really really worth reading.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 02:22

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 00:18

cda: Jan 2, 2010; by Hand Knit

Consummate Professional posted:

I would like to suggest Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

I've read this book like a dozen times but I would read it again in a heartbeat. All of the other people in this thread are crazy -- Cat's Cradle is definitely Vonnegut's best book.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 16:40

cda: Jan 2, 2010; by Hand Knit

Epic High Five posted:

On this note, my serious suggestion will be Birthday of the World by Ursula K LeGuin

She's always been one of the gods of my authorial pantheon because I feel like nobody strikes to the core of what speculative fiction is supposed to be. This is a collection of short stories, each of which stand on their own and are quite wonderful. The centerpiece, and if you read only one read this one, is The Matter of Seggri, which I predict that most people will find deeply troubling in how thoroughly and plausibly it shows how horrifically the tables can be turned without anybody realizing that that has even happened. For dudes who have lived a comfy life it will be doubly jarring.

Coolguye posted:

Devil in the white city owned, good one from eonwe.

My rec is Big Dead Place, a candid series of funny stories and journals on working in Antarctica from a janitor. Also available on audible for those of us that listen to our books.

It's one part drunken sex in a shack, one part fruitless raging against government backed corporate structures, one part threatening your lovely boss, one part figuring out how to store frozen piss, and three parts laughing at the futility of it all. The book is insanely C-SPAM.

These both sound great. I don't know offhand if I would read them for a book club, but I will buy them and they will sit on my shelf waiting to be read.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2017 16:42

cda: Jan 2, 2010; by Hand Knit

Fanky Malloons posted:

I will make a suggestion that I don't expect to be popular but I'm making it for selfish reasons anyway, so whatevs: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
I feel like I can't really explain the plot without spoiling it, but it's basically turn-of-the-century Russian melodrama, I guess? It's real good if you're into that sort of thing. (And in this political climate why wouldn't you be???)

Aside from the fact that there just something stylistic about a lot of Russian literature that I just really enjoy, I read Anna Karenina when I was about 16 and I HATED the titular character for being dumb and weak and whiny. However; I liked the book as a whole, and now that I'm an old, and my views on things have become more nuanced (and 1000% more feminist) I think it would be interesting to revisit the book and see if my interpretation of things changes. Of course, it would be even more fun to do that with a posse of nerds on the internet, so I'm throwing it out there for your consideration.

I just finished reading Anna Karenina yesterday and I loved it and I didn't think Anna was dumb, weak, or whiny.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 01:29

cda: Jan 2, 2010; by Hand Knit

Fanky Malloons posted:

Excellent! I am sure that my opinion of her would be vastly different now, so I may just go ahead and re-read it anyway sometime in the near future.

When I was in HS I thought lots of famous protagonists were whiny and annoying: Hamlet, Hester Prynne, everyone in The Great Gatsby etc. It's easy to look at the situations they put themselves in and think "this would be easy to get out of if you had any common sense." Then you become an adult and find yourself loving up in exactly that way and realize your limitations as a human being and that gives you more empathy for the characters. These books weren't written for teenagers.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2017 16:22

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 00:18

cda: Jan 2, 2010; by Hand Knit

Epic High Five posted:

Comin up on zero hour, vote while you can!

***FIRST ROUND OF VOTING IS UP***

UP FOR 24 HOURS, TOP FIVE RUNOFF IF NOTHING GETS 50% WHICH THEY PROBABLY WON'T

LIST OF BOOKS WITH DESCRIPTIONS HERE: https://pastebin.com/WdG34pGi

VOTE HERE: http://www.strawpoll.me/12770539

THE RULES:
1) Vote for up to 5 you'd like to read
2) You cannot vote for your own. Honor system, DON'T gently caress THIS UP OR I'LL JUST GO DICTATOR

Oh poo poo. I should have read this fully and I didn't and I voted for Tenth of December, which was my own. I'm sorry. It's not going to win anyway and you can just subtract one vote.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2017 20:18

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > CSPAM Book club for book matters and also reading!